


just practice

by knuffled (bigscary)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:45:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigscary/pseuds/knuffled
Summary: “So I’m taking you on dates and stuff, but we’re not actually together?”“Yeah, exactly. It’s just practice,” Annabeth said, nodding.“Just practice,” Percy echoed.“Just practice,” Annabeth confirmed.Percy locked eyes with her silently for a few seconds before he took a long sip of his milkshake. “Do we have a deal?” Annabeth asked.“We have a deal,” Percy said.





	1. Chapter 1

The entire mess had started because of a single off-hand comment in the locker room before the first cross country meet of her senior year. Annabeth had been in the middle of changing into her track clothes when she heard one of the younger girls complaining about the fact that her boyfriend wasn’t coming to see her run at the meet. Her friends chimed in with a chorus of agreement, but then one of them whispered something that made Annabeth stiffen as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

“Yeah, the captain sure is lucky. I wish my boyfriend would come to every meet like hers does,” one of them sighed. “Maybe I should ask her for advice.”

Before Annabeth could correct whoever had spoken to tell them that she did not, in fact, have a boyfriend, Clarisse interrupted and said, in an annoyingly loud voice, “She can't help you. After all, Annabeth’s never had a boyfriend before.”

When the other girls made noises of surprise, Annabeth turned to her and glared, bunching her hands into fists. Clarisse met her gaze and smirked, “Or am I wrong, Chase?”

Annabeth opened her mouth to say something but stopped, realizing that she didn’t really have anything to say. “Wait, she and Percy aren’t dating?” a girl whispered to her friend, frowning.

Although she’d heard some version of this exact question every year she’d been in high school, it never got any less exasperating. “Percy and I are just friends. Now, the meet starts in two minutes, so hurry up instead of gossiping,” Annabeth said sternly.

The girl who’d spoken cringed and looked away in embarrassment. Annabeth thought that was the end of it, but then Clarisse laughed and said, “Looks like I hit a nerve. I didn’t realize you were that insecure about not having a boyfriend, Chase.”

Annabeth felt the entire locker room watching as her face turned red. “Imagine going through all four years of high school without having been on a single date,” Clarisse jeered.

“That’s enough,” Annabeth shouted, but she could feel her face burning with embarrassment. “The meet is starting now.”

“Whatever you say, _captain_ ,” Clarisse said, purposefully knocking shoulders with her as she walked past.

Annabeth screwed her eyes shut and took a shuddering breath. There had been animosity between her and Clarisse throughout all of their high school years, that manifested mainly as a quiet, mutual distaste for one another, but everything had come to peak when at the start of the year Annabeth had been named captain instead of Clarisse. Ever since then, Clarisse had become actively antagonistic towards Annabeth by refusing to listen to her during practice, making snarky comments whenever she got the chance, and generally making life as difficult as possible as she could for her.

She forced herself to forget about it as she stepped out of the locker room and made her way outside. There was a chill in the early September air that carried the promise of a swift autumn to come. Annabeth found a patch of grass for her to begin her stretches and did her best to clear her mind. Five neighboring schools were also participating in the meet, which meant that there were a few hundred kids participating. She stood up after finishing her stretched and looked at the tents set up at the edge of course, searching for Percy and his ridiculous banners out of habit before she caught herself. Her face burned as she recalled the fiasco in the locker room.

Thankfully, she didn’t have much time to dwell on it as a voice over the PA announced that the women’s 5k was beginning in two minutes. Annabeth forced herself to take a deep breath before she made her way over to the starting line. As she jostled for a place, Annabeth felt her thoughts disappear like ripples disappearing on the surface of a pond. It felt like an eternity before the official fired the gun to start the race, but she didn’t feel an iota of anxiety. If you asked her, Annabeth would say that this was the best part. This was what she lived for — the final moments before the start of race when everything else faded to black except for the path in front of her. Then, with the sound of the gun, she ran.

~oOo~

Annabeth crouched over and pressed her hands against her knees trying to catch her breath. Her chest heaved as she swallowed great lungfuls of oxygen. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up to Percy grinning down at her. He was wearing a blue Westwood Swim Team sweatshirt and board shorts.

“You did great!” he beamed, opening his arms for a hug.

“I’m all sweaty and gross right now,” Annabeth protested, breathing heavily.

Percy scrunched his nose and said, “Yeah, on second thought, I’ll pass. You stink.”

“Asshole,” Annabeth grumbled, punching his shoulder.

Percy grinned and said, “Go take a shower. I’ll wait for you in the parking lot.”

“What are we doing after?” Annabeth asked.

He hummed thoughtfully, like he was going to say something thoughtful, before he shrugged and said, “Dunno. We’ll figure it out.”

“That hardly inspires confidence,” Annabeth grumbled.

“Yeah, yeah, mopey. I know you didn’t get first, but it’s only the first meet of the season.”

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. “I’m not moping,” she said.

Percy leaned in and pressed a finger to her forehead. “Hm, these creases beg to differ. Now go get showered.”

“Alright, alright, jeez. Give me ten minutes,” Annabeth muttered.

After her shower, Annabeth found him sitting on the trunk of his old blue Honda Accord, scrolling through his phone. When he noticed her approaching, he shot her a smile and slid off the trunk.

“Did you see the banner I made this time?” Percy asked, grinning.

“I have a feeling you’re about to show me,” Annabeth said warily.

Percy opened the trunk of his car and unfurled a large paper banner with the words sloppily hand-painted in all caps. It read: ANNABETH CHASES VICTORY!

Annabeth wanted to groan when Percy shot her a shit-eating grin.

“Do you get it?” he asked.

“You’ve made those dumb puns out of my last name every season now — you can stop asking me if I get it,” she said exasperatedly.

Percy sniffed melodramatically and said, “That’s all you have to say to me after all the hard-work and love that went into making this?”

“Just get in the car, you dork. I’m hungry,” Annabeth said.

Percy rolled his eyes and opened the doors to his car. “Alright, you absolute terror.”

“Dullard,” Annabeth quipped, sliding into the passenger’s seat.

“What’re you in the mood for?”

“Martha’s?” Annabeth asked hopefully.

Percy turned his key in the ignition and adjusted the mirror for good measure. “Martha’s it is. But you better not steal all of my french fries like you always do. Order some for yourself this time, I’m actually begging.”

“Shut up, you love it,” Annabeth said.

He muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t make out and pulled out of the parking lot. Martha’s was a diner that had been around since the 50’s, and it was still decorated the same way it had been since the day it opened, but Annabeth just thought that was a part of the charm. They had the best fries and milkshakes in town. She and Percy had been there together more times than she could count. It was something of a tradition to go there after track and swim meets to celebrate, and as such the drive was a familiar, comforting one.

Percy rolled down one of the windows and rested his arm against it as he drove. The wind blew through his unruly hair, making it even more chaotic than usual. Annabeth reached over to comb it down with her fingers out of habit when she stiffened. Clarisse’s words rang in her ears, and she felt her face prickle and burn. Percy noticed as she pulled her hand away and raised an eyebrow.

“What? Something wrong with my hair?” he asked.

“There’s always something wrong with your hair,” Annabeth shot back.

Percy frowned and looked at her. “Is something wrong? Your face is all red.”

“I’m fine,” Annabeth squeaked out.

He looked like he was going to press her on it but mercifully let it go. For the rest of the drive, Annabeth couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Even once they got a booth at Martha’s finished ordering their food, she preoccupied herself with staring out the windows instead of meeting Percy’s concerned gaze. She drummed her fingers against the table and counted the cars driving by outside.

Annabeth started when Percy’s hands rested on top of hers. “Hey, are you okay? You seem kind of off?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine,” Annabeth lied.

There was a brief pause before Percy said, “Is it the cross country meet? I know you didn’t get first, but fifth out of hundreds isn’t that bad, you know?”

“It’s not that,” Annabeth said, sighing.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s okay, but you know I’m always here for you right?” Percy said.

_“Imagine going through all four years of high school without having been on a single date.”_

“It’s just really dumb,” Annabeth muttered.

Percy gave her a significant look and said, “I highly doubt that.”

Annabeth had to resist the urge to groan. Why was he being this difficult? She couldn’t just come out and say that he was the problem. Stupid Percy. If he didn’t look so good driving, then she wouldn’t have gotten this dumb idea stuck in her head. More than anything, she was frustrated by how she was so affected by Clarisse’s words. It wasn’t like guys hadn’t asked her out before. She’d just never had a good reason to say yes. Her life was so busy that she couldn’t really handle a relationship on top of everything unless she was really sure about it. But now that it was senior year and college was around the corner, wasn’t it going to be really strange if she started her freshman year without any experience dating at all?

It was the unabashed concern in Percy’s eyes that finally made her sigh and say, “It was just something Clarisse said to me before the start of the meet. It’s just been bugging me that’s all.”

“What’d she say?” Percy asked.

“She made fun of me for having never having gone on a date and stuff,” Annabeth said, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger.

Percy scoffed and said, “That’s a really dickish thing to say.”

“Yeah,” Annabeth agreed, but her voice sounded hollow even to her ears.

“There’s still something on your mind though,” Percy said.

Annabeth bit her lip and said, “I’m just— I think she does have a point. I don’t want to go to college having like zero relationship experience.”

“That’s perfectly normal though,” Percy said.

“Easy for you to say,” Annabeth scoffed. “You’ve already gone out with like three girls since freshman year started.”

There was a brief instant where Percy’s expression turned hard but it softened so quickly that Annabeth was almost sure she’d imagined it. Now that she thought about it, Percy barely mentioned anything about those relationships with her. Not that she’d wanted to know. But she was his best friend, so it was a little weird that he’d never talked to her about it. All of a sudden, she felt really embarrassed, only just realizing the gulf in experience between them. Her eyes darted to his lips as Annabeth wondered if Percy had already had his first kiss — she was positive that he had.

Percy opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Annabeth blurted, “This is going to sound really weird, but I have an idea.”

When he gave her an expectant look, she said, “What if— What if you and I tried dating? You could like teach me all the stuff that you’re supposed to do in a relationship and stuff. It’ll be like trial run of a relationship, just so I know what it’s like. That way by the time I get to college, I won’t be a complete idiot about it and stuff.”

Percy’s expression was inscrutable, which unsettled her greatly. She’d known him from the age of seven, and there had never been a time in all those years that she had been unable to tell what he was thinking — except for now. The silence seemed to span an hour, and Annabeth felt her stomach sink.

But then Percy softly asked, “Why are you asking me? I thought you hated when people asked you if we were dating.”

“Because you’re Percy,” Annabeth said. “I’m more comfortable around you than anyone.”

There was a strange look in Percy’s eyes as he asked, “And you’re sure about this?”

Annabeth’s throat was dry as she answered, “I am.”

“Ok, then let’s do it.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Yeah?”

“Don’t look at me, you’re the one who started the whole thing,” Percy said, raising an eyebrow.

“I didn’t think you’d say yes,” Annabeth said.

“Of course I’d say yes.”

 _Ah, there was that strange look again._ “Oh,” Annabeth said.

“I do have one question,” Percy said. “What happens once it’s over? Break ups can ruin friendships. I’m not agreeing to this unless I know we’re both going to be okay after it’s over.”

“There’s no way that’ll happen,” Annabeth said dismissively.

“You’d be surprised,” Percy said.

“It’s not a real relationship, though. You’re just going to teach me what it’s like to go out with someone. It’s not like we’re actually going to be, you know,” she said vaguely, trailing off.

Percy stared and said, “So I’m taking you on dates and stuff, but we’re not actually together?”

“Yeah, exactly. It’s just practice,” Annabeth said, nodding.

“Just practice,” Percy echoed.

“Just practice,” Annabeth confirmed.

Percy locked eyes with her silently for a few seconds before he took a long sip of his milkshake. “Do we have a deal?” Annabeth asked.

“We have a deal,” Percy said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's chapter two! kudos and especially comments are greatly appreciated! i will try to get chapter three done as soon as i can! 
> 
> ps: i changed the name of the school that they go to and edited the name in chapter one too - i don't want to freak any observant readers out!

The following Monday, when Annabeth walked into first hour English and made her way to her seat by the window, her eyes still burning from lack of sleep, she remained woefully unaware of the fact that news that Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson were finally going out had spread through Westwood High like proverbial wildfire. It didn’t take long, however, for that to be rectified. Piper accosted her the second that she sat down, grinning like the cat that got the canary, which should have been enough to arouse some modicum of suspicion in Annabeth, but she was still far too caffeine deprived to realize what was going on.

It was therefore altogether understandable that she felt completely discombobulated when Piper said the following: “So word around the block is that a certain someone is finally going out with the captain of the swim team.”

Annabeth, who had been in the process of rummaging in her backpack for her english essay, froze and turned to her friend. “What?” she asked.

Piper scooted her chair closer to Annabeth’s desk and threw her arm around Annabeth’s neck. “C’mon, you honestly thought I wouldn’t know?” Piper asked.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes and said, “Obviously, I knew you’d find out. Just not so soon.”

There was a twinkle in Piper’s eyes as she said, “Well, I do have my sources.”

“That sure is a roundabout way of saying Percy told you.”

Piper leaned back in her chair, shrugging. “We are best friends after all.”

Before Annabeth could do more than roll her eyes, Percy walked into the classroom, a cup of coffee in hand. He took his seat in front of Annabeth’s desk, but not before wordlessly passing Annabeth the cup. Annabeth felt the tips of her ears burn, aware of Piper watching her like a hawk, that shit-eating grin still stubbornly on her face. Percy stifled a yawn and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before he turned and gave them an oblivious smile.

“It’s my two favorite girls,” he said.

“Don’t let your mom or Estelle hear you say that,” Annabeth said, giving him a pointed look.

Piper laughed and said, “She’s right you know.”

There was an undeniable fondness in the way he rolled his eyes and said, “She’s _always_ right.”

Annabeth shrugged and took a hasty sip, which made her hiss in pain when she burnt her tongue. “Fuck,” she muttered.

“You okay?” Percy asked, frowning.

“Burnt my tongue,” Annabeth said.

When Percy’s frown deepened, Piper rolled her eyes and said, “She’ll live, Percy.”

Percy shot her a nasty look that only made Piper laugh and tousle his already messy hair. Percy scowled and swatted her hand away, grumbling to himself as Piper leaned forward in her seat. “Anyhow, on to more pressing matters,” Piper said. “Which of you two idiots asked?”

Percy gave Annabeth a sidelong glance, a smirk sliding on his face. “Yeah, who asked, Annabeth?” he asked liltingly.

Annabeth stared at her coffee as her face grew warm. “I did,” she mumbled.

“Hah! Vindication!” Piper cheered, pulling out her phone.

“You watch way too much Brooklyn 99,” Percy said.

“I had a lot of money riding on this, fucko, so excuse me if I celebrate a little,” Piper said, texting furiously. “Man, Jason and Leo are going to be so pissed I was right.”

It was hard to mask the exasperation in her voice when Annabeth said, “You bet on whether we would go out with each other?”

“We bet on whether you’d ask him out before we graduated,” Piper clarified. “I knew my trust in you wasn’t misplaced, Annabae.”

“I thought I told you to stop calling me that,” Annabeth said, a low growl in her voice.

“Well mark me down as scared and horny, babe,” Piper said, not even sparing a glance as she pocketed her phone. “Oh wait, I can’t say shit like that anymore now that you and Percy are finally a thing, huh? What a bummer.”

“You’re actually intolerable.”

That was when the bell rang and their teacher, Mr. Edmonds, walked into the classroom with a stack of papers tucked under his arm. Piper reluctantly scooted her chair back to her desk next to Percy’s desk, and Annabeth was thankful that her interrogation had been brought to an abrupt halt. Percy turned around when the teacher asked everyone to pass up their essays and held his hand out to her. His hair was as messy as ever, black waves crashing into each other haphazardly. The ratty, orange camp t-shirt he was wearing had begun to fray at the edges of the collars, leading her eyes to linger on the shark tooth necklace hanging from his neck, the bone white jarring against the tanned skin beneath.

“Do I have something on my face?” Percy asked, disrupting her observation.

“No?” Annabeth said.

Percy raised an eyebrow and said, “Well, you were staring pretty hard, so I thought.”

When Annabeth didn’t respond, Percy laughed and said, “You wanna turn in your essay? I’m getting tired holding my hand out like this.”

Annabeth felt her face burn as she handed him her paper. “My bad,” she muttered.

Percy rolled his eyes and said, “Make sure you finish your coffee. You look like you need it.”

Annabeth told him to shut up under her breath but reached for the coffee anyways, which was now thankfully not as hot, and took a sip. Thankfully, the rest of class passed by without any further shenanigans, and it didn’t take long for the bell to ring again. Percy was gone by the time Annabeth finished packing her belongings in her backpack, but before she could leave her desk, Piper stopped her, an uncharacteristically serious expression on her face.

“So what brought this on?” Piper asked.

“What do you mean?” Annabeth said, putting her folder in her backpack.

“Like why’d you ask him out now? What changed?”

For a second, Annabeth considered telling Piper the truth about the whole “practice dating” thing but something gave her pause. There was the fact that even though she’d known her for a long time, Piper had always been closer to Percy than to her, but there was also something in the way that she was looking at her that unsettled her.

“I’m not sure,” Annabeth said, shrugging.

Piper stared at her for a few seconds before a smile blossomed across her face. “Well, that doesn’t matter now anyways. I’m rooting for you two lovebirds,” she said.

Piper slung her backpack across her shoulder and make her way to the classroom entrance, but before she stepped outside, she paused and turned to look at Annabeth. “He sounded really happy, you know?” Piper said.

Annabeth wasn’t really sure how to respond to that, so she just plastered an uneasy smile onto her face. Piper stared at her again for another second or two with that same intense emotion in her eyes before she finally stepped outside. Once she was gone, Annabeth let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.

Percy was waiting for her outside the classroom, falling into step with her as she walked to her next class. “Why’d you wait? I thought your class was on the other side of school,” Annabeth said, frowning.

“Isn’t it normal to walk my girlfriend to class?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

For the umpteenth time that day, Annabeth felt herself flush with embarrassment. “I guess,” she said, squeezing her backpack strap tighter.

“So what did Piper wanna talk to you about?” he asked.

For some reason, she couldn’t tell him the truth — there was something about her interaction with Piper that just felt weird. “Nothing much. Just girl talk,” Annabeth lied.

When Percy hummed in response, Annabeth added, “She did say that you seemed, and I quote, ‘really happy’ that we were dating.”

A dumbfounded look crossed his face as he said, “Well, would you rather I had sounded miserable?”

“That’s not what meant, and you know it,” Annabeth said, stepping in front of him to stop him.

Percy sighed and said, “It would be really weird if I didn’t sound happy about it.”

“But we’re not really—”

“I know we’re not,” Percy interrupted. There was a harshness in his voice that made Annabeth frown, but before she could press him on it, it melted back into that same effortless kindness that she had always associated with him.

“I know we’re not actually a couple, but think about it: we have to act like we are, otherwise there’s no point to this. If we’re not going to go at this seriously, like it’s _real_ , then it’s not really practice, is it? If this was real, wouldn’t I immediately gush to Piper about it? Wouldn’t I sound really happy?”

She couldn’t deny the truth in his words so she nodded. “Well, as long as you know.”

“I know,” Percy promised. “I’m not getting carried away. This is ‘just practice’, right?”

There was something about the way that he said that that rubbed Annabeth the wrong way, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was. “Right,” Annabeth said slowly.

Percy’s answering smile dispelled any tension that might have formed in the air. They spent the rest of the way walking to Annabeth’s class in silence, and once they got there, they both stood outside the classroom for a while.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you later?” Percy said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Annabeth nodded and made her way into the classroom. She walked to her desk and sat down before it occurred to her that she should probably thank Percy for walking her to class. That seemed like the sort of thing a girlfriend would do, right? She put her backpack in her chair and walked back outside the classroom, hoping Percy wasn’t gone. Thankfully, he hadn’t went too far when she stepped outside.

When she called out to him, he turned around, a curious look on his face. “Thanks for walking me!” Annabeth said before adding, “To class I mean!”

A grin broke across Percy’s face just as the bell rang, prompting him to give her one final wave before he turned and ran to make it in time for his next class. As she watched him go, Annabeth balled her hands into fists by her side and felt a rush confidence wash over her. Maybe she could do this whole girlfriend thing after all.

~oOo~

The heat was particularly sweltering during track practice later that day. Annabeth found herself incessantly wiping sweat off her brow with the back of her hand over the course of the run. The coaches had settled on a six mile run following the trail that circled the lake behind the high school. After the day’s events, going for a run was exactly the thing that Annabeth needed to settle her thoughts. The familiar burning in her lungs and the sound of her own ragged breathing calmed her down like nothing else. It was only when she ran that the chaos in her ADHD brain ever calmed down.

She forced herself to run a more strenuous pace that she was used to, making her way out of the woods only a half-hour into the run. The lake sat placidly to her right, and the reflected light of the slowly setting sun cast an orange-bronze hue to the water. Annabeth stirred when she heard the sound of someone running behind her. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw Jason only a foot or two behind her, his face screwed in concentration.

“Your pace is way too fast, Annabeth,” he protested breathlessly.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and said, “No one’s asking you to keep up with me.”

“I’m not talking about myself — I’m talking about the rest of the team,” Jason said. “I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, but now that you’re captain, you can’t just jet ahead of everyone else like always.”

“Being captain is a real pain sometimes,” Annabeth muttered. “Maybe they should’ve made you captain instead.”

“You and I both know they chose the right person for the job,” Jason said.

“Well, thanks for letting me know,” Annabeth said, sighing as she slowed her pace significantly to something more akin to a brisk walk than to actual running.

Jason sped ahead of her but not before shooting her an apologetic smile. It only took a few seconds for the other seniors on the team to pass her as well. Before long the juniors came and went, nodding when they noticed her, but it took quite a bit longer before the sophomores and the freshman came into view. Annabeth shouted words of encouragement and broke into an easy jog herself as she mingled with them. She kept an eye out for any stragglers or people struggling, stopping now and then to attend to them.

By the time she finished the run, the sun had begun melting into the horizon. Annabeth made her way to the track and finished a final lap for her cool down run before she found Jason, who was in the middle of his stretches.

When she sat down alongside him and settled into her own stretches, he turned to her and said, “Piper tells me you and Percy are going out now?”

Annabeth nodded and said, “Yeah, I asked him out on Friday.”

“After the meet?” Jason asked, bending to touch his toes.

“Yeah, we went to Martha’s after,” Annabeth said. “I couldn’t find you after the meet or I would’ve asked if you wanted to come.”

“Piper wanted to go to Taco Bell,” Jason said, shrugging.

“She’s fucking obsessed with Taco Bell.”

Jason rolled his eyes and said, “Tell me about it. I get PTSD every time I drive past the one near school.”

When Annabeth laughed, Jason smiled and said, “I’m happy for you though. I’m sure things will go well for you and Percy.”

“Thanks,” Annabeth said.

“I do want to say that you lost me fifty bucks, though,” Jason muttered.

“Well, maybe that’ll teach you not to bet on other people’s relationships, ya dork,” Annabeth said.

Jason huffed and laid down on the grass, done with his stretches, and threw an arm over his eyes. Annabeth sighed and said, “What do people even do in relationships?”

“I dunno,” Jason said. “Whatever they want, I guess.”

“What about you and Piper? You guys have been going out since forever,” Annabeth said.

“Well, at first we went on dates and stuff, like everyone else. We went out for dinner and a movie,” Jason said.

“Yeah? Which one?”

“Inside Out.”

Annabeth gave him a look and said, “That’s a pretty bad movie for a first date.”

“Yeah, I cried like seven times. It wasn’t exactly ideal,” Jason said, laughing. “We didn’t have the first clue about dating either back then. Now, it’s a lot easier. We just hang out. Go to Taco Bell. You know, the usual.”

“How romantic,” Annabeth said, smiling. “Doesn’t sound that different from being friends.”

“Well, you don’t usually kiss your friends,” Jason said cheekily.

“Gross, I don’t want to hear about you and Piper kissing,” Annabeth said.

“God, you’re such a prude, Chase,” Jason said. “You want to kiss Percy, right? That’s why you’re going out after all.”

Blood rushed to Annabeth’s face. “I-I do not!” Annabeth squeaked.

Jason raised his arm and looked at her. “You’re so full of shit. Why else are you guys going out? Isn’t it because you finally wanna bone him?”

“Shut up, oh my god!” Annabeth groaned. “You spend way too much time with that horny girlfriend of yours. You used to be a prude back then too.”

Jason sat up and wiped the grass off the back of his shirt. “Well, yeah, but then I got laid,” he said. “You should try it some time.”

“Maybe I will!”

He held his palms up in surrender, but the gesture was undercut by the fact that he was laughing. “It’s weird to see you like this,” he mused.

“Like what?” Annabeth muttered.

“I dunno, flustered, I guess? You’re always so put together and stuff. But even the great Annabeth Chase gets bent out of shape about something like dating, huh?” Jason said.

“I don’t have any clue what I’m supposed to do. I don’t like not knowing what to do.”

Jason shrugged and said, “That’s part of the fun. You just learn things as you go. Besides, Percy’s a great guy. I’m sure you’ll work things out together.”

Annabeth sighed. “I hope so.”

“I know so,” Jason said. “You got this, ABC. And if you ever wanna talk, I’m here for you.”

“I know,” Annabeth said. “Thanks. I appreciate it. Like a lot.”

Jason laughed and said, “Okay, good to know. I’m gonna head back and hit the showers. See you at practice tomorrow.”

Annabeth offered him a smile and said, “Yeah, see you.”

Once he left, Annabeth sighed and laid down on the grass, thinking about what he said. It hadn’t occurred to her before Jason had said it, but if she was going to be practice dating Percy or whatever, that would mean that she would end up kissing him at some point, right? That just felt… weird. Kissing Percy was weird. She’d known him since they were kids. It would be like kissing her brother or something. Obviously, Percy was attractive. Anyone with eyeballs could see that. That wasn’t the problem though. The problem was that she’d never seen Percy in a romantic light, like ever. There was a reason she’d never asked him out before, even though everyone in school seemed to think they were destined for one another. Percy was just her best friend. Someone who had been there for her through everything. And she’d been there for him through everything too. Romance had never really been in the picture before. There had never been space or need for it.

But now, they were dating. Dating meant kissing. And _other_ stuff. Fuck, maybe she hadn’t thought this through. She knew that Percy would never do anything that she wasn’t comfortable with, so she wasn’t worried about that. What if she didn’t want to kiss Percy? Wasn’t that a problem? Didn’t that make the whole practice dating thing pointless? Practice dating sort of necessitated that sort of thing, right? Wow, she _really_ hadn’t thought this through at all.

Annabeth sat up with a sigh, resolved to table the problem for another day, and made her way back to the school. Once she showered and changed, she made her way over to the school pool. There was only one person still in the water, but Annabeth knew without looking who it was. She made her way over the water’s edge and waited for Percy to finish his lap. His head popped out of the water once he noticed her standing there.

“Annabeth, hey!” he said. “Ready to go?”

When she nodded, he hauled himself out of the pool and said, “Just let me shower and get changed, yeah?”

“I’ll be waiting by your car,” Annabeth said.

Percy nodded and said, “Yeah, sounds good.”

It took about fifteen minutes for Percy to meet her outside — his hair was still wet from the shower and the scent of his body wash clung to his skin. Once he unlocked the doors to his car, they both sat down. As they drove out of the parking lot, Percy turned the radio on and began humming along to the song that was playing. His fingers drummed against the steering wheel, off-time like always. There was something so familiar about the situation that it made Annabeth smile despite herself.

Percy must have noticed because he raised an eyebrow and said, “What?”

“Nothing,” Annabeth said. “Just glad practice is over.”

“Ugh, you and me both,” Percy said. “Coach has been making me do extra laps after practice to help our chances at winning state.”

Annabeth winced and said, “That’s brutal.”

After Percy nodded, a comfortable silence settled between them, but it wasn’t long before Percy spoke again. “So, since we’re doing this whole practice dating thing and all, shouldn’t we be going on dates and stuff?”

“What did you have in mind?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Is that a yes?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, Seaweed Brain, that was a yes.”

Percy grinned and said, “It’s going to be a surprise.”

“Better be the good kind,” Annabeth warned.

“When have my surprises ever been anything but good?” Percy asked indignantly.

Annabeth hummed and said, “Hmm, I can think of a few. Remember the chocolate chip cookie debacle of ’09?”

When Percy winced, she pressed further and said, “Or the Last Day of Camp prank on Mr. Brunner when we were in 8th grade? Or Piper’s surprise birthday party last year?”

“Okay, okay, you made your point. It’s a good surprise, I promise,” Percy said, laughing.

“I should hope so. I’ve heard it’s very important to make a good impression on the first date.”

“Did you now?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Mhmm, so I expect to be wowed.”

“You’re awfully demanding for someone who’s never been on a date,” Percy said, shaking his head.

“Mhm, I’m free this Saturday, by the way,” Annabeth said casually.

Percy parked outside Annabeth’s house and laughed. “That was smooth,” he said.

Annabeth opened the door and grabbed her backpack from the back seat and slung it over her shoulder. “So Saturday?” she asked.

“Saturday,” Percy confirmed, nodding.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

There was an uncharacteristic tremor in his voice when he said, “I-I hope I don’t let you down.”

Annabeth scoffed and said, “You’ve never let me down, like ever. I’m sure we’ll have a blast, Seaweed Brain. See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Percy said.

With that, Annabeth walked to her house, giving Percy a final wave before she went inside. She slipped her backpack off and rested the back of her head against the front door and shut her eyes. She’d never seen Percy’s nervousness directed towards her like that before. They’d always been so comfortable around each other. She didn’t know how she felt about that. Maybe it was a sign that he was taking this seriously, in which case it wasn’t that big a deal. She just didn’t want things to be weird between them because of the whole practice dating thing. Still, she felt a rush of nervous anticipation herself too — for the first time in her seventeen years of existence, she would be going on a date.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's finally here! apologies for how long it took to get this out, but i hope you enjoy it. leave a comment/review and make my day if you liked the chapter! it's what motivates me to continue the fic. see the notes at the end of the chapter for some rambling if you want. 
> 
> also follow me on tumblr! here's my username: knuffled   
> here's a direct link: https://knuffled.tumblr.com

The sunlight filtered through the fluttering curtains in Annabeth’s bedroom, warming the side of her face and waking her. She sat up in her office chair with a yawn and stretched before rubbing the grime out of her eyes. When she looked down, she noted with some disgust the small puddle of drool on her SAT prep book. It was hard to say how long she’d been asleep, but it looked like it was late in the afternoon. She fumbled for her phone, which was on top of her bedside table, to check the time just as Percy called.

“Hello?” she said. 

“Hey, I’m on my way to pick you up right now, so I wanted to give you a heads up,” Percy said. 

With unadulterated horror, Annabeth pulled her phone away to look at the time. It was nearly five. Jesus, that meant she’d been asleep for nearly three hours. 

“Shit,” she muttered. 

“Uh, oh,” Percy said. “That doesn’t sound good. What’s going on?” 

Annabeth wedged the phone between her shoulder and her ear and frantically rummaged in her closet for something clean to wear. 

“Um, nothing. Nothing! How far out did you say you were again?” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. 

“Uh, I’m at the traffic light by the Sonic,” he said. “You sure you’re okay?”

That gave her about ten minutes to shower and get ready — it would be rough but doable. She settled for the first t-shirt her grasping hands could find and an old pair of jeans tucked in the back of the closet. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I’ll see you in a bit,” she said quickly. 

Percy began to say something, but she hung up before he had the chance and ran to the bathroom, which was thankfully unoccupied. Annabeth rushed through her shower and decided she didn’t have enough time to do anything fancy with her hair, so she settled for leaving her hair down. After grabbing her phone, she took the stairs down three at time and almost bowled into her step-mother, Helen. 

“Oh!” she gasped. 

Annabeth swerved around her, avoiding eye contact, and muttered, “Sorry.” 

“Where are you going in such a rush?” Helen asked. 

“I’m hanging out with Percy,” Annabeth said, slipping on her shoes. 

“Does that mean you won’t be home for dinner?” Helen asked. 

Annabeth shrugged and said, “Probably not.” 

Helen sighed and said, “Well, it’s not like you normally eat with this family anyways.” 

Annabeth froze, mid-way through tying her shoes, and felt her jaw tighten. For a few seconds, she wrestled with the temptation to say something snarky in response, but she forced herself to take a deep breath and ignore it. Getting into arguments with her step-mom only ever pissed her off. 

“Dad, I’m hanging out with Percy!” Annabeth yelled over her shoulder. 

She could see the back of his head in the living room, reading a newspaper. He made some distracted noise of acknowledgement but didn’t otherwise turn from his paper. Annabeth swallowed hard and forced open the front door before she ran down the steps leading to her front door and slipped into the passenger’s side seat of Percy’s car.

“Hey,” Percy said. 

“Hey,” Annabeth muttered, reaching for her seatbelt. 

Annabeth knew that if Percy saw her face, he would immediately begin worrying, so she turned away from him and pressed her forehead against the cold window. Still, she could hear the concern in his voice when he said, “Ready to go?” 

All Annabeth could do was nod, prompting Percy to start the engine and pull out of her driveway. She screwed her eyes shut and took another deep, shuddering breath, wrapping her arms around body and curling in the seat towards the window. There was a song she didn’t recognize playing feebly through the car radio, but it was so quiet that the sound of wheels on the road drowned it out. There was something peaceful about the noise in conjunction with the feeling of the cold glass against her forehead, and by the time they pulled onto the highway, Annabeth felt a little less on edge. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Percy asked quietly. 

Annabeth moved her head from the window and said, “No, not really.”

Percy gave her a quick glance before looking back at the road and said, “Well, if you want to, I’m here to listen.” 

“I know,” Annabeth said, mustering a smile. “Thanks.” 

She turned towards the window again and stared outside. Percy’s hand quietly found hers and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting it go, and Annabeth felt a surge of gratitude and affection for him rush through her. It was the little things like that that made Annabeth love him so much. He somehow always knew how to make her feel better. A Taylor Swift song began playing on the radio, which made her groan out of habit, derailing her train of thought. 

“Ever the T-Swift hater,” Percy said, sighing melodramatically.

Annabeth sat up straight and scoffed. “I don’t hate her,” she said.

“That was utterly convincing,” Percy said. 

“It’s just I don’t like that—”

“That they play her songs non-stop because it gets on your nerves, I know,” Percy said smugly. 

Annabeth turned to glower at him but froze at the sight of him instead. It was the first time that day that she had gotten a proper look at Percy, and she found herself trying not to gape at him. 

Percy noticed her staring and rubbed his cheek, frowning. “What? Do I have something on my face?” he asked. 

She had not been expecting him to dress up. Maybe it was a bit egregious to say he was dressed up — he was only wearing a button down shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans — but the outfit looked oddly professional on him. Annabeth knew from prior experience that Percy hated wearing button down shirts, even though she’d always said he looked really good in them, and this black and white checkered number he was wearing was no exception. Christ, he’d even rolled up the sleeves, exposing his forearms. 

“You’re dressed up!” she said incredulously.

“Gee, thanks for noticing,” Percy said, rolling his eyes, but there was no venom in his voice. “It only took you, what, like fifteen minutes?” 

“But you hate button downs,” Annabeth said. 

“Well, yeah, usually—”

“Nobody told me we were dressing up,” Annabeth interrupted, feeling her heart sinking.

“We’re going on a date, Annabeth. A date. You’re kind of supposed to dress up for them, you know?” Percy said, laughing.

Annabeth suddenly felt horribly aware of how she was wearing a ratty old t-shirt from middle school and how it had a small hole near her right shoulder. Her jeans weren’t much better — on top of being probably the worst pair she owned, they had also been thrown in the wash so many times they had turned into denim soup. 

There was a fond resignation in Percy’s voice when he said, “I had a feeling this sort of thing might happen. If anything, it’s my fault for not letting you know beforehand. Don’t worry though, we’re not going anywhere fancy.”

Annabeth still mumbled an apology and shrank back in her car seat. She wished the ground would swallow her whole. This whole practice dating thing had been her idea, and she was the one fucking everything up. It was honestly unbelievable how she managed to forget such a major thing on her first date. It was made all the worse by the fact that Percy was taking this seriously. Of course, she was glad that he was, but it only served to highlight her own ineptitude.

As if he could read her mind, Percy turned to her and said, “Annabeth, don’t worry about it. Seriously. I just want you to have a good time tonight. That’s all that matters to me, okay?” 

“Okay,” Annabeth said quietly. “Now where are we going?”

A small smile crossed Percy’s face. “You’ll see. We’re almost there.” 

It took another ten minutes before Percy pulled into a parking lot in front of a large building. When Annabeth stepped outside, she could hear the ocean not far in the distance and the cawing of seagulls over head. The sky was turning dark and gray, and she could see the beginnings of a storm forming on the horizon, out at sea. 

Standing in front of the building, Percy opened his arms like a showman and said, “Ta-da, it’s the aquarium!”

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” Annabeth said, smiling. 

“C’mon, let’s head inside and get tickets,” Percy said. “Maybe they’ll give me a discount.”

“Oh, yeah, you used to work here right?” Annabeth said, walking alongside Percy. 

“Yeah, I volunteered here the summer before junior year. You know, the one you spent at your cousin’s place in Virginia?” 

“Man, that summer was so boring,” Annabeth groaned. “At least we weren’t staying with my step-mom’s side of the family.”

Percy winced and said, “That would’ve been bad.”

“It would’ve been fucking train wreck, is what it would’ve been,” Annabeth snorted. “I’d honestly rather get lobotomized than go through that.” 

When Percy laughed, Annabeth felt her spirits raise somewhat. They got in line to get their tickets, and Percy even managed to sweet-talk the middle aged lady at the ticket counter, who remembered him, into giving them both a discount. As she applied the discount, Percy turned around and flashed Annabeth a bright, disbelieving grin, and Annabeth couldn’t smiling back. She was distracted by it long enough for Percy to pay for both their tickets before she could complain. 

He handed her a ticket as they walked towards the entrance of the museum and laughed giddily. “I can’t believe that worked. Thank god it was Janice at the register today and not Karen. She would have probably charged us double.” 

“You didn’t need to pay for my ticket,” Annabeth huffed. 

“My mom didn’t raise a son who wouldn’t pay on a first date. Sorry not sorry,” Percy said, shrugging. 

Annabeth couldn’t argue with that logic. “Well, I’m buying dinner. No arguing.”

“I suppose I’ll let you have that one,” Percy said, laughing. “Now, what do you want to go see first?” 

“Uh, I don’t know,” Annabeth said. “The penguins, I guess?” 

“Good choice! Penguins it is!” Percy beamed. 

The aquarium was crowded, which made sense given that it was Saturday and that the aquarium was pretty popular. Even though Annabeth had lived in Westwood her entire life, she had never actually been here, much to Percy’s chagrin. He’d always promised to take her, but it had never panned out for whatever reason. It was kind of fitting that they were here for their first date. The thought brought a small smile to her face. 

“Okay, here we are,” Percy said, coming to a stop. There were about four penguins waddling around in their enclosure and two more swimming in the water. 

Percy pointed one of them out and said, “That’s Benny. He’s the youngest penguin we have here. Oh and that’s Lyla. The one swimming there is Gertrude. Then there’s Nina, Oswald, and I think that’s Coco hiding behind the rocks. The really big one is Horace. Horace is kind of a dick. He always tried to steal from the other penguins during feeding time.” 

“How can you tell which one is which?” Annabeth asked, still trying to digest the sudden deluge of information coming her way.

“Well, Benny is the smallest, and Horace is the biggest, so there’s two right there. Nina and Coco always stick near each other, but Nina has a white patch on the nape of her neck. Gertrude loves to swim, Lyla hoards pebbles, and Oswald has a cut on one of his flippers from getting into a fight with Horace,” Percy explained. 

“How do you remember all of that?” Annabeth asked. 

An easy smile crossed Percy’s lips as he shrugged. “I don’t know. I just kinda do? Maybe because I worked with them a lot. Which way do you want to go next?”

“Uh, left?” Annabeth said. 

Percy brightened impossibly further and said, “Ooh, that’s where the sea horses are!” 

She couldn’t help smiling at his excitement and followed him as they walked to the next exhibit. Percy pointed out all the animals he’d worked with and shared stories about the particularly memorable ones. He could also spout off a bunch of facts about any of the animals, and the more he talked, the more animated he got. At some point, he started steering Annabeth to the exhibits, his hand on the small of her back, too caught up in what he was saying to notice. 

Annabeth lost track of what he was saying about a fourth of the way through the aquarium. It occurred to her that this is what he must have felt like when she went off on rants about architecture. This time, Percy was the one going a hundred miles an hour while she did her best to keep up. It was strange having their roles reversed, but the more animated he got, the more he seemed to glow, so it was kind of worth it. 

Eventually, they made their way to a gigantic tank at the heart of the aquarium, which was filled with the most diverse amount of fish Annabeth had seen all day. The tank was so big it was impossible to get a full view through only one window. The windows were supported at the base by concrete that sloped up from the ground to hold the glass in place. Percy laid down on one such slope and Annabeth laid down beside him when he wordlessly patted the spot next to him.

From their new vantage point, they were looking at the tank upside down. Annabeth could only stare as groups of colorful fish swam past, occasionally dispersing when an eel or larger fish showed up. With the windows hanging over their heads, the fish were so close that it almost felt like she was in the tank herself. 

She didn’t know how long they laid there, silently staring up at the animals swimming, but eventually she turned to Percy and whispered, “This is so cool. I had no idea you knew so much about all this.”

When he shrugged nonchalantly, Annabeth said, “No, don’t try and play it off. It’s amazing. You could honestly give Wikipedia a run for its money.”

Percy shook with suppressed laughter, but Annabeth nudged him with her elbow until he met her eyes. “Seriously. You’re amazing,” she said, trying her best to make him understand. 

“Thanks,” he whispered. 

“I mean I’ve always known you’ve loved the ocean and stuff, but I never realize that you knew this much.” 

Percy offered her a small smile and something alien gleamed in his eyes. “There’s lots of things that you don’t know about me.”

The subtext in his words was plain to hear, even if Annabeth couldn’t understand what he was implying. She tried looking into his eyes for clues, but she only saw an invisible challenge in them. Before she could ask him what he meant by that, Percy stood up and the moment was gone.

“We should get going,” he said. “I’m getting hungry.” 

“Yeah,” Annabeth said, frowning. “Me too.” 

Outside, it was beginning to get dark. The storm had moved significantly closer and now loomed overhead. They found a small diner and ordered cheeseburgers and milkshakes to eat as they walked along the beach. They sort of talked about everything and nothing while they walked and ate. Eventually they made their way to the beach, but it was getting too dark to go in the water, so they settled for sitting on the sand, which had already begun losing warmth now that dusk had arrived.

When Annabeth stole yet another sip from his milkshake, Percy shoved her. “I swear to god, you’ve stolen more than half of my milkshake, you asshole. More than half!” he fumed, but it was undercut by the fact that he was trying hard not to laugh. 

“I drink your milkshake! I drink it all up!” Annabeth said, cackling. 

Percy groaned and said, “Isn’t that from that one movie we had to watch in history class? Blood something or other?” 

“There Will Be Blood,” Annabeth corrected. 

“It was a such fucking awful movie,” Percy said. “I almost wanted to call in sick when we were watching it.” 

“I don’t know, the part where he went nuts and chased Paul Dano in his bowling alley was pretty entertaining,” Annabeth said. 

There was a pause before Percy said, “Okay, agreed, but that doesn’t make up for the other hour and a half of that movie.” 

Annabeth hummed in agreement, watching with avid interest as Percy finished what little remained of his milkshake. He made a show of slurping as obnoxiously as he could, so Annabeth pushed him, even though it was making her laugh. Percy made a noise of disapproval and glowered at her as he put aside the empty cup. 

“You’re honestly so mean to me, Annabeth Chase,” he said, shaking his head. “Why do I put up with you?” 

“Because you love me,” Annabeth teased. 

There was a moment where she thought Percy stiffened beside her, but when she looked over at him, he was only rolling his eyes. It happened so quickly that she almost missed it.

Percy quickly cleared his throat and said, “Mom wanted me to tell you she said hi, by the way. And that you should come over sometime because she misses you. Same with Estelle.” 

“I’ve been meaning to,” Annabeth said. “It’s just been busy. Between school and college apps and testing and cross country, I barely have time to breathe. Like this morning, for example, I spent like four hours studying for the SAT.”

“That sounds like a lovely way to spent a Saturday morning. Why oh why would you complain?” Percy said, smiling. 

“Yeah, okay, Mr. Swimming Scholarship.” 

“Nothing’s set in stone yet,” Percy said warily. 

Annabeth shrugged and leaned back, resting on her elbows. “It’s only a matter of time. The scouts will be raving about you — if they aren’t already that is. You deserve it though. I know how hard you’ve worked these last few years,” she said. 

“Thanks,” Percy said softly. “And you’ll crush the SAT. I know you will.” 

“I hope so,” Annabeth said, sighing. “Weird how we are finally seniors now, right? One last year and then it’s off to college.” 

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Percy muttered, hugging his knees to his chest. “High school is hard enough as it is. I don’t even wanna imagine how bad college is going to be.” 

“Same,” Annabeth said. “We’ll survive somehow. We always do.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Percy sighed. 

“On a more serious note, have you considered working your way up at the aquarium or something? Like in the off chance that the college stuff doesn’t pan out, I mean. You looked really passionate back there,” she said. 

Percy started drawing shapes in the sand as his face turned red. “I talked at you literally non-stop. I’m really sorry.” 

“Don’t be,” Annabeth said. “It was really cool seeing a side of you I’ve never seen before. And I learned a lot.” 

“Well, I’m glad you did, but I still felt like one of those guys that just doesn’t shut up on a first date. Felt like I was mansplaining or something,” he said. 

“Don’t be silly. I had a lot of fun. I was definitely wowed,” Annabeth said, smiling.

Percy looked up at her shyly. “Really?” he said.

“Really, really,” Annabeth promised. “But next time, I’ll be the one showing you around, Seaweed Brain, so look forward to it.” 

An enormous grin slid across Percy’s face, and he seemed to glow even brighter than he had in the aquarium, if such a thing was even possible. A little laugh escaped him before he could help it. 

“What’s so funny?” Annabeth asked, frowning.

He shook his head, still laughing a little, and said, “Nothing.” 

“That was real convincing.”

“Well, it’s just that I’m told I set the bar pretty high when it comes to dates, you know? You sure you can top that, Chase?” he asked, grinning. 

Annabeth breathed a laugh and shoved him. “Don’t get so cocky, Seaweed Brain. This is what I get for paying you a genuine compliment, huh?” she said. 

Before Percy could respond, the clouds overhead boomed and suddenly it began to rain. They both stood up and ran back to Percy’s car, just in time to avoid the torrential downpour that followed. 

“There’s a towel in the back seat if you need it,” Percy said as he started the car. “I used it for swim team practice on Friday though, so fair warning.” 

“I’m okay. I didn’t get too wet,” Annabeth said. 

The rest of the car ride was relatively quiet apart from the sound of rain and thunder, but Annabeth’s mood began to drop the closer they drew to home. She stared at the shifting landscape outside the window, trying not to feel like all the magic of the date had been suddenly undercut. It was still raining heavily when they stopped in front of Annabeth’s house, even though the drive had taken over a half hour. 

“I really don’t want to go back inside,” she muttered. 

“Did something happen?” Percy asked. 

Annabeth pressed her head into her car seat headrest and screwed her eyes shut. “Yeah, but I don’t want to get into it right now,” she said.

There was a pause before Percy said, “You can sleep over at my place tonight, if you want. My mom would be totally fine with it.”

“Thanks, but I kind of have to go home tonight, or it’ll just get worse,” Annabeth said. “Thanks though. Not just for that, but for the date and everything. I had a great time.”

“Good, I’m glad,” Percy said, smiling softly. 

“I’ll see at you school on Monday then, I guess,” Annabeth said, sighing as she stepped out of the car. 

“See you then,” Percy said, nodding.

“Later,” Annabeth said. 

She gave Percy one final wave once she reached the front door, and once he pulled out of her driveway, she stepped inside. The sound of the television coming from the master bedroom made her breathe a sigh of relief. She slipped off her shoes and made her way to her room, locking the door behind her once she was inside. 

She checked her phone and saw that it was almost midnight. Once she changed into her pajamas and shut the open window, Annabeth slipped into bed and stared at the ceiling. There was a weary fear that she would spend the rest of the night overthinking about the day’s events, unable to sleep, but she fell asleep almost immediately after closing her eyes, grateful for some rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, this chapter was really hard to write. on top of grossly out of practice, one huge reason is because all the subtext makes it really hard to write interactions with subtlety. also since we are limited to annabeth's perspective, it's really hard to communicate how percy feels or what he thinks just via his body language, facial expressions, mannerisms, and way of speaking, so i have to really think about how much i want to communicate and how to do it. i'm probably doing a crappy job at it, but i am trying my hardest. 
> 
> hope this helps explain some of the work that goes on behind the scenes! if you enjoyed, please leave kudos/comments - they really encourage me - and thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really sorry for how long it took to update. i've left a longer explanation in the notes at the end for anyone who's interested. big thank you to bipercabeth for her input on a section in this chapter that i was struggling with. i truly appreciate any comments or thoughts you all might have - it truly inspires me to keep going! thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy!

By the last week of September, all traces of summer were well and truly gone. There was a crispness to the air that Annabeth knew would soon turn into a biting chill, the kind that seeped into your fingers. With the end of September came the start of the new swim season and the very first meet of the season. Annabeth drummed her fingers against the wheel of her father’s old Subaru Forester, glaring at the stop light which had been resolutely red for the past five minutes. The meet was due to start in three minutes, but she was still ten minutes away from where it was being held.

Annabeth cast another baleful glare the traffic light’s way and stole a sip of lukewarm coffee from her thermos just as the light turned green. The Subaru groaned as she hit the accelerator hard and lurched forward so abruptly that her father’s briefcase fell from its spot in the backseat. She arrived seven minutes late and rushed inside, following the sterile scent of chlorine towards the pool, hoping desperately Percy’s heat hadn’t started yet. There was a heat already underway when she finally got to the pool, which made her heart sink before she noticed Sally and Estelle waving to her from the bleachers. Annabeth made her way over to them, half-jogging, and took her seat next to Sally.

“We saved you a spot, Annabeth!” Estelle said brightly.

“Thanks, guppy,” Annabeth said breathlessly. “I’m not too late, right?”

“No, you’re fine, honey. Percy’s heat still won’t be for a while,” Sally said. “It’s good to see you! It’s been far too long.”

“Yeah, I miss you, Annabeth,” Estelle said, pouting.

Annabeth spoke to both of them and said, “Me too! I really wish I could come by more often, but I’ve just been so bogged down with school, track, testing, and college apps that I barely have time to breathe these days.”

Sally patted her thigh and offered her an affectionate smile. “Oh, sweetie, I understand. You kids have to work so hard these days. I hope you’re not pushing yourself too hard. If it ever gets to be too much, you’re always welcome to stop by for some cookies and a chat. I’m always here for you,” she said.

A rush of affection washed over Annabeth for the woman in front of her and her eyes grew watery. “Thank you, Sally. I’ll definitely take you up on that sometime,” Annabeth promised.

“And next time you come over, we can play some of the new games I got!” Estelle said brightly.

Annabeth reached over to squeeze Estelle’s small hand. “I’m looking forward to it. How’s second grade treating you, Guppy?” she asked.

Estelle’s smile dropped as she said, “It’s okay. There’s a lot more homework now. My teacher is nice though.”

“I know you can do it. If you ever need any help with school, let me know, okay?” Annabeth said.

When Estelle nodded and offered her a small smile, Annabeth gave her hand a gentle squeeze one last time before turning to Sally and asking, “How’s Paul?”

“Oh, he’s good. Has his hands full now that the school year is in full swing, but he’s happy. Tired, but happy,” Sally said. “I’m just a bit worried because I have a book tour coming up in October, and I’m not sure he will be able to handle everything on his own."  
  
“You have a new book coming out?” Annabeth asked.

Sally nodded and said, “Yup! I finished it over the summer and sent it to the publisher in August.”

“That’s wonderful, Sally. I’m so happy for you!” Annabeth said.

“Thank you, honey,” Sally said, smiling warmly. “It was a long road to get it finished, but I’m very proud of how it turned out, so I can’t wait to see what the readers have to say once they get their hands on it.”

“Oh, Percy’s up next!” Estelle interjected.

Annabeth turned her attention back to the pool and found Percy in the lane closest to the bleachers, stretching his arm across his chest. As always, Annabeth was struck by the stark contrast between Percy in everyday life and Percy when he was competing. There wasn’t a trace of that soft kindness in his demeanor that Annabeth was so accustomed to seeing. It was instead replaced by a hard set jaw and an intense, cold look in his eyes.

Once the previous heat finished, Percy stepped to the pool’s edge and took his starting position along with the other competitors, waiting with bated breath for the race to begin.

The instant the official blew his whistle, they all leapt into the water in unison. Percy took the lead immediately, cutting through the water with an ease that the other competitors lacked. His movements were economical and effortless, almost elegant, a product of years of rigorous training and his inherent aptitude for the sport.

It always took Annabeth’s breath away. In the water, Percy was a different person. Day to day, Percy was warm and gentle, but it always felt like he was holding something back, something dark, something powerful — Annabeth couldn’t say what it was, but she’d seen it in his eyes ever since they were children — but in the water, all of that come rushing out with the force of a flood breaking through a levy, turning him into a truly fearsome competitor.

As an athlete herself, Annabeth knew there were a chosen few in their respective disciplines, those who transcended their peers by an almost divine right, and the feelings of dread and helplessness when competing against them. Even if they were your enemies, their sheer skill demanded acknowledgement, leaving no room for petty human contrivances like pride or stubbornness.

Percy’s swimming elicited that sort of visceral response, and as such the outcome of the race was a foregone conclusion. He stepped out of the pool before the other competitors even finished the race. Time resumed flowing then and the crowd erupted in a flurry of applause.

Percy’s coach clapped his back, a manic grin on his face, and gestured violently to the board on the other side of the pool where Percy’s time was posted. Annabeth knew that meant that Percy had probably beaten his previous personal best, judging by the coach’s response and the dazed look on Percy’s face, and her heart pounded, filled with pride and vicarious satisfaction on Percy’s behalf. Few things were as gratifying as hitting a new personal best. It was one thing to beat your competition, but it was so much sweeter to beat yourself and surpass your own limits.

The remaining heats seemed muted in comparison, and once they ended, Annabeth joined Sally and Estelle as they rushed down to meet him. He was crowded by exuberant teammates who were clapping his back and ruffling his hair. The sight made Annabeth smile, but it fell when her eyes followed the crescent-shaped scar that ran down his right shoulder blade. Annabeth noticed the sad, distant look in Sally’s eyes and knew she was looking at the same thing, a remnant of her ex-husband, but she didn’t dwell on it long because she looked genuinely happy when Percy turned towards them, a dazed smile on his face.

“Oh, honey, congratulations! I’m so proud of you,” Sally said, wrapping Percy in her arms. “You did so good.”

Percy stepped back and smiled softly. “Thanks, mom.”

Estelle jumped onto his back with a squeal, making Percy laugh. “What’d you think, Guppy? Was I any good?” he asked.

“You looked so cool! Like a shark!” Estelle said.

“Like a shark, huh?” Percy chuckled. “That does sound cool.”

“What are you going to do now? We were thinking of heading home,” Sally said.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I was thinking of hanging out with Annabeth,” Percy said before turning to Annabeth. “Unless you have other plans.”

Annabeth shook her head and said, “Nope, I’m all yours.”

There was a near imperceptible fondness in the look on his face that vanished once he helped Estelle down. He waved goodbye and watched her and Sally leave before he turned to Annabeth and ruffled his still wet hair.

“I’m not hugging you. You’re all wet, so don’t get any ideas,” Annabeth warned.

“Always so mean, Chase,” Percy said, trying not to laugh.

“Someone’s got to keep your ego in check, after all.”

Percy raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh and I suppose you’re the one to do it?”

“I thought that was a given,” Annabeth teased. “Congratulations, though. Did you PB?”

“Yeah, somehow,” Percy said, still shocked. “Guess today was my lucky day.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it. That was all you,” Annabeth said.

“What happened to checking my ego?”

“I’ll make an exception this one time, considering you PB’d and all,” Annabeth said, grinning.

Percy rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. “How charitable.”

“Yeah, yeah, go take a shower and meet me in the parking lot once you’re done,” Annabeth said, laughing as she pushed him towards his teammates.

Percy shook his head and laughed to himself before he followed his teammates into the locker room. Annabeth made her way back out to the parking lot and leaned against the trunk of her car as she waited for him, her hands in her sweatshirt pockets. The afternoon had begun transitioning to evening, dipping the sky in a golden-orange hue. Percy walked out a few minutes later with his swim bag slung over his shoulder, his hair still wet from the shower. There was a tired smile on his face that morphed into frowned once he reached Annabeth.

“Isn’t that my sweatshirt?” he asked.

Annabeth scuffed her converses against her ankle and shrugged. “Must be your imagination,” she lied.

Percy sighed and said, “I’m going to have start hiding them from now on.”

She slid into the front seat of her car with a wolfish grin. “Bold of you to assume that would stop me.”

Percy stowed his bag in her back seat and sat shotgun, muttering, “You absolute terror.”

Annabeth ignored him and said, “So what’s the plan?”

“Well, one of the guys on the team is hosting a party since his parents are out of town. I heard people from Seneca Falls and Northbrook coming too, so it should be pretty wild,” Percy said.

“Hmm,” Annabeth said, not entirely interested.

“Let’s check it out. If it sucks, we can always leave early,” he added.

“I’m not really in a party going outfit though,” Annabeth noted, gesturing to her sweatshirt and yoga pants.

Percy stifled a yawn and shrugged. “It’s supposed to be real casual. You’ll be fine.”

After a moment’s consideration, Annabeth started the car and said, “Yeah, sure, why not.”

As she pulled out of the parking lot, Percy turned the radio on and flipped through the channels until he found a station he liked. He turned the volume up and sank back into his seat, closing his eyes. He looked exhausted. Annabeth stole a glance at him and smiled to herself. She remembered all the times he’d stayed long after practice had ended to get in extra laps. More than anyone, she knew how hard he’d worked for this — she couldn’t help feeling glad that his effort had paid off.

It was maybe ten minutes later that a thought crossed her mind that gave her pause. “Hey, Percy?” she asked.

Percy hummed tiredly in acknowledgement in lieu of a proper response, his eyes still closed. “Does your mom know about us dating or whatever?”

At this, Percy opened his eyes and looked at her. “No, she thinks we’re the same as always. Why do you ask?” he said.

“Just wondering,” Annabeth said. “I am kind of surprised that you didn’t tell her, though.”

“I don’t want to lie to her.”

Annabeth turned to look at him, but Percy was turned facing the window. There was something off about his tone even though it was perfectly neutral, and it left Annabeth with a vague sense of unease. She had the temptation to ask him about it, but she wasn’t even sure how to formulate a question to do that. She didn’t have long to dwell on it though because they arrived at the party shortly after. There were so many cars lined outside the house where the party was being held that she had to park two streets away, but even that far away the blaring music was still audible.

Percy looked tense as they walked to the house, but Annabeth wasn’t sure if that was a function of their conversation in the car, the party, or his tiredness after the meet. She kicked a stray pebble on the road, trying not to feel unsettled, and stuffed her hands in her sweatshirt pockets to shield them from the cold night air.

When they stepped inside the house, Annabeth was instantly accosted by the scent of sweat and alcohol. There was a throng of inebriated teenagers dancing in the living room where a Drake song was playing through the home theater system at such a deafening volume that Annabeth could feel the bass reverberate through her entire body.

She turned to Percy and raised an eyebrow, silently asking him what he wanted to do, but before he could respond, someone from the swim team noticed him and made his way over to them. After a round of introductions, Percy’s teammate introduced them to other people at the party, but Annabeth couldn’t recognize anyone and didn’t bother remembering their names.

Somehow in the fray as they were being introduced to even more people, Annabeth managed to get separated from Percy. For a few minutes, she tried to find him but quickly gave up, realizing it was pointless given the sheer number of people that were at the party. She spotted a kitchen close by and jostled past sweaty, grinding teenagers to grab herself a drink. There were bowls of potato chips and a variety of cheap bottles of alcohol on the countertop, thank goodness. If they were going to be here awhile, she sure as hell couldn’t do it sober. She took a handful of chips to eat while she pondered the age old conundrum of taste over alcohol content —should she get something she would actually like or was it just better to get drunk as fast as possible?

Eventually, she settled on grabbing an IPA to sip on as she wandered around the party. Annabeth did a lap of the first floor before deciding to head down to the basement. There were far fewer people there so it was twenty degrees cooler than it was upstairs, something Annabeth was instantly grateful for. A small crowd was huddled by a ping pong table, watching two people playing a match. Her interest piqued, Annabeth decided to watch as well, but the game ended as soon she arrived.

“Holy shit, that’s eleven wins in a row,” someone muttered.

The girl who had won was tall, even taller than Annabeth, with dark, braided hair that stopped past her shoulder blades. She raised the hem of her purple shirt to wipe some sweat off her brow, exposing her clearly defined abdominal muscles. Between them and her toned arms and powerful leg muscles, everything about her physique screamed athlete. Annabeth couldn’t shake the feeling that she seemed familiar. Then all at once, she recognized her — it was Reyna from Seneca Falls, the girl who had taken first at State as a Junior. Annabeth had run into her at several meets the year before, but she hadn’t managed to beat her a single time.

“Anyone else?” Reyna challenged, scanning the room.

Annabeth put her now empty bottle aside and stepped forward. “I’ll give it a shot,” she said.

Reyna handed her a paddle but didn’t otherwise seem to recognize her, which sent a spark of irritation shooting through Annabeth’s veins. “We’ll play to eleven,” Reyna said, tossing the ball Annabeth’s way. “You can serve first.”

Her hand tightened around the paddle’s handle — Reyna was underestimating her. Admittedly, Annabeth had hardly ever played ping pong, but her competitive spirit wasn’t going to stop her from trying to win. Annabeth was going to make Reyna remember her.

Annabeth decided to focus on accuracy with her first serve, but as a result it was too weak. Reyna returned it with ease and instantly scored a point. Annabeth grit her teeth and tossed the ball over to Reyna for her serve. Reyna’s serve was much more polished than hers, but somehow she managed to return it, starting a short rally that ended in Reyna’s point. Their subsequent rallies grew longer and longer as Annabeth grew more accustomed to the game and developed a knack for how hard to hit the ball while maintaining some degree of accuracy. She began to score points but never managed to acquire a lead at any point in the game.

Before the final rally, the score was ten to nine in Reyna’s favor. If Annabeth could just score one more point, the game would go to a deuce, but if she failed the game would be over then and there. Reyna took a deep breath and served, but Annabeth returned it to the opposite corner of the table. They rallied for nearly two minutes before Reyna hit a shot with enough spin to make the ball swerve sharply to the right when it hit the table. Annabeth dove to return it but broke her paddle against the wall.

Bitter disappointment welled up in her stomach as she stood up and put the two halves of the broken paddle on the table. “Well, I guess I lose,” Annabeth said.

Some of the people watching clapped as Reyna walked over to her and offered her hand. “It was a good match,” Reyna said.

Annabeth shook it and felt a little better. “Yeah, it was.”

“You’re on the Westwood cross country team. I remember you,” Reyna said, recognition flooding in her eyes.

Annabeth blinked in surprise and nodded before saying, “You’re Reyna from Seneca Falls, right? I’m Annabeth.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing you at meets this year,” Reyna said, smiling slightly.

“Yeah, me too.”

There was a pause before Reyna slowly said, “If you ever wanted to run together sometime, I would totally be down.”

“Really?” Annabeth asked, her heart rate quickening.

Reyna nodded and said, “How about we exchange numbers? We can work something out later.”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Annabeth said, handing Reyna her phone so she could punch in her number.

Once she returned her phone, Reyna did a lazy once over of her body, and Annabeth had to fight the ridiculous urge to stand up straighter. A gleam of approval flashed in Reyna’s eyes before she said, “Well, Annabeth, I could certainly use a drink. Come join me.”

Although Annabeth hated being ordered by other people, she found herself nodding and following Reyna upstairs to the kitchen. Part of her was curious what kind of drink Reyna would choose, but it was all too fitting when Reyna opted for a bottle of Smirnoff. Instead of pouring herself a glass, she took a long draught straight out of the bottle with the same ease one would drink a bottle of water. When she was done, Reyna wiped the excess off her lips and shot Annabeth a look that made her chest clench a little.

There was a challenge in Reyna’s eyes as she wordlessly passed Annabeth the bottle and leaned against the counter, watching with an intense stare, like she was testing if Annabeth could keep up with her. Annabeth took a swig as well, trying not to wince when it burned her throat. Her eyes began to water, but she blinked the tears away before they could fully form. She took a few more gulps, enough to get her on the other side of tipsy, before Reyna took the bottle back with a half-smile, seemingly impressed.

“Do you dance, Annabeth?” Reyna asked, studying her intently.

Annabeth blinked in surprise and said, “Uh, yeah, I guess?”

“Good,” Reyna said, a smirk tugging at her lips. “Come dance with me.”

Before Annabeth could respond, Reyna pressed her hand on the small of Annabeth’s back and steered her towards the living room. Annabeth wasn’t sure why she was being so tolerant of being bossed around like this, but for some reason she didn’t mind. The air thrummed to the beat of the music, and Annabeth felt like her senses were functioning on overdrive. Her body felt warm and heavy, and her heart thundered in her chest. She could preternaturally feel the heat radiating from Reyna’s palm where touched her lower back.

They stopped at the threshold of the living room when Percy managed to wiggle his way out of the crowd and stopped in front of them.

“Annabeth!” Percy said, sounding relieved. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”

There was a dangerous undertone in Reyna’s voice as she asked, “Do you know him?”

“Um, yeah, this is my friend, Percy. Percy, this is Reyna,” Annabeth said.

Percy’s brow furrowed at her response, his eyes darting between Annabeth and Reyna before noticing Reyna’s hand still pressed against the small of Annabeth’s back. A coldness seeped into his eyes when he looked back up at Reyna and locked eyes with her. The look in Reyna’s eyes were similarly combative, like they were sizing each other up.

“Nice to meet you,” Reyna said coldly.

“Likewise,” Percy replied, matching her tone.

The sudden, heavy tension in the air was palpable, even to Annabeth, as tipsy as she was. Reyna’s entire body was drawn taut like she was preparing herself for a fist-fight. Percy had a bad habit of slouching most of the time, but now he drew himself up to full height and looked down imperiously, his jaw set in a hard line.

“How much did you make her drink?” Percy demanded.

Reyna stiffened and said, “ _She_ drank as much as _she_ wanted to.”

There was a pregnant pause that seemed to span an eternity before Percy spoke again, but when he did, his eyes never left Reyna’s. “I’m kind of tired from the meet, Annabeth. Let’s go home.”

Reyna looked like she wanted to argue further, but when Annabeth nodded mutely, she leaned in and muttered, “Are you okay to go home with him?”

When she nodded again, Reyna finally dropped her hand from the small of Annabeth’s back. Percy took Annabeth’s hand in his own, and the alcohol in Annabeth’s veins made her unnaturally aware of how Percy had laced his fingers between hers. She could feel his pulse from where their wrists were touching as he led her to the front door. Before they stepped outside, Annabeth remembered Reyna and turned over her shoulder to mouth a quick apology, but she couldn’t make out the look on Reyna’s face.

The cold air was startling after the humid heat inside, but Annabeth breathed it in, grateful to be rid of the stench of sweat and alcohol, and felt her head clearing up.

Percy turned to her after they reached her car and held out his hand. “Hand me the keys. You’re not really good to drive right now.”

Although she didn’t like his tone, Annabeth couldn’t deny the truth to his words, so she fumbled in her pockets for her keys and handed them to Percy. He helped her into the passenger’s seat before settling behind the wheel.

She couldn’t remember much about the ride back home. At some point, she must have fallen asleep because she woke up to Percy gently rousing her. Annabeth sat up in her seat and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with the back of her sweatshirt sleeves.

“Where are we?” Annabeth asked sleepily.

“At your house. I parked in your drive way. Here are the keys,” Percy said, handing them to her.

“What about you? How are you getting home?” she asked, pocketing them.

“I’m walking home,” he said.

Annabeth looked at him for the first time since she got in the car and noticed the dark, brooding look on his face.

“Are you mad?”

Percy screwed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “No, Annabeth, I’m not mad.”

“Liar,” Annabeth mumbled. “You’re doing that thing with your jaw.”

This made Percy soften a little before he looked at her again. “We can talk about it later, okay? Right now, you need to get some rest. We _both_ need to get some rest,” he said.

She was too tired and tipsy to argue with him, so she nodded and let him help her out of the car. Percy slung her arm around his shoulder to support her on the way to her front door. Annabeth was so drunk that she missed the keyhole five times in a row before Percy sighed and took them from her and opened the door. He helped her inside and laid her on the sofa in her living room before disappearing in her kitchen and returning with a bottle of water and some Advil.

He crouched down beside her and said, “Make sure you take two of these and drink some water or you’ll feel like shit tomorrow. I’m gonna head home now, okay?”

“Okay,” Annabeth said sleepily.

There was a slight pause before Percy stood up to leave, but he froze when Annabeth caught his sleeve. “Sorry for making you mad,” she murmured, half-asleep.

When she would wake up the following morning, Annabeth wouldn’t remember anything that happened after her match with Reyna. She wouldn’t remember the look on Percy’s face as he looked down at her, warm and kind and strained, or what he said as she drifted off to sleep. She would, however, faintly recall the sensation of something brushing against her forehead like the flutter of butterfly wings, leaving her with a vague sense of melancholy, like she was forgetting something important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, apologies for how long it took to get this out. i have mental health issues that make it really difficult to motivate myself enough to write, and i also acquired an injury earlier this year that makes it really painful to sit in one place for a long time, which really makes writing physically painful for me. 
> 
> i truly appreciate all the support this fic has gotten so far - it's what motivates me to continue writing despite all the health issues i have. so if you could comment and let me know your thoughts or share the fic on tumblr, i would be super grateful.
> 
> again a big thank you to bipercabeth for her input on this chapter - it really helped me a lot. if you haven't read her writing yet, i highly recommend doing so! she's super talented and her fics are always well developed and have great character development. parts of this chapter were heavily inspired by chapter one of her roommates fic!
> 
> on to the chapter itself: 
> 
> i'm trying hard to strike a balance between how much information i want to reveal, so it's been a struggle. i have a lot of angsty backstory stuff i want to share all at once because i'm a slut for making you all suffer, but i'm trying to hold back and present things a bit at a time and to heavily foreshadow future angst. for example, there is a major instance of foreshadowing in this chapter that i'm hoping someone will catch, but it's very subtle. or at least, i THINK it's super subtle.
> 
> there's the first bit of real drama in the fic so far in this chapter which was fun to write! reyna and percy's scene was super fun, and i hope that the cues in the scene gave you all an understanding of where they were each coming from respectively. if you have questions about anything, feel free to ask me on my tumblr! i love answering things or talking about the fic in general, so don't be afraid to hit me up and have a conversation - i don't bite!
> 
> if you read this far, thank you very much and i hope you enjoyed the fic! i will try to update as soon as i can, but again i have a lot of health issues that make it difficult, but i will do my best!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to apologize for the long wait, this chapter is twice as long as the others! hope you enjoy, and if you did, i truly appreciate any and all comments! it motivates me to keep writing!

In the week following the swim meet, Annabeth couldn’t shake the feeling that something felt _off_ about Percy. To anyone else, the change would’ve been so minor that it would have been imperceptible, but Annabeth knew him better than she knew herself, so she couldn’t help picking up on a vague sense of distance emanating from him. Their interactions just felt strangely stilted, but she wasn’t sure why.

Her instincts told her that something must have transpired at the party, something important enough to have upset him, but try as she might, she found herself drawing a blank whenever she tried to remember what that something might be. The last thing she could remember from that night was playing ping-pong with Reyna and exchanging phone numbers with her. She agonized over it for the better part of the week, trying to remember what had happened afterwards, but she didn’t make any headway. Finally, she resolved to ask Percy directly that Friday, but she never got the chance — Percy was absent that day from school.

At first, she didn’t think anything of it when his desk was vacant before first hour started — he was usually late, but he had a knack for showing up just before Mr. Edmonds did, with a tired smile and half a lukewarm cup of coffee in hand for Annabeth.

Her first inklings of suspicion arose when Mr. Edmonds started taking roll call and there was an empty silence after he drawled, “Jackson.”

Annabeth looked to Piper to see if she knew Percy’s whereabouts, but she shook her head when Annabeth met her eyes. Mr. Edmonds looked up from his clipboard, a frown on his face, and noticed his empty desk before moving on to the next person on the seating chart.

For all Percy’s grumbling about how annoying high school was and how he couldn’t wait for it to be over, he was rarely ever absent. Piper must have shared similar thoughts because Annabeth could see her frowning and furiously typing a text, her phone hidden beneath her desk, out of the corner of her eye.

Annabeth found it almost impossible to pay attention to the lesson that day and caught herself staring at the clock hanging above the door, watching the minutes pass by excruciatingly slowly.

When class was over, Annabeth walked with Piper to her next class. “You texted him, right? Has he said anything?” she asked.

Piper showed Annabeth the text she had sent Percy during class, but it hadn’t even been read despite her having sent it an hour before.

“He’s probably just sick or something,” Piper said, but there was a slight note of hesitance in her voice, like she didn’t fully believe what she was saying.

“We both know that Percy literally never gets sick.”

“Yeah, I know, but there’s no use worrying about it now,” Piper said, sighing. “I was thinking about swinging by his place after school. You wanna come with?”

Annabeth was about to nod before she realized that she still had cross country practice after school. “I’ve got practice, but I’ll come over as soon as it’s over,” she said.

Piper raised an eyebrow and said, “Do you have a ride? Doesn’t Percy usually take you home after practice?”

Annabeth almost face-palmed. “Fuck, yeah, you’re right.”

There was a momentary pause before Piper said, “I can wait till practice is over and give you a ride if you want.”

“Oh my god, you’re a life saver. You’re getting some Taco Bell as a token of my appreciation,” Annabeth said.

Piper laughed and said, “Deal, but I’m sure you’d have figured something out. If all else failed, Jason would’ve given you a ride.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Geez, I’ve been feeling totally spaced out today. Scratch that — not just today — all week,” Annabeth muttered.

Piper nodded and said, “I didn’t want to say anything, but I was getting that kind of vibe from you too honestly.”

When Annabeth was silent, Piper gave her a sidelong glance and said, “Sort of got that vibe from Percy too.”

Annabeth wanted to groan — there was no putting anything past Piper as always. Piper held her palms up in surrender and said, “I promise I won’t press you on it or anything, but you guys are my two best friends so I can’t help picking up on stuff like that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Annabeth said fondly. “Honestly, you should be the Mentalist or whatever for Halloween.”

Piper scrunched her nose. “Isn’t that show like a billion years old?”

“They still make new episodes for it!” Annabeth said incredulously. “Sometimes I seriously cannot believe that you’re related to _The_ Tristan McLean.”

In lieu of a response, Piper jabbed Annabeth’s sides with her elbow and skipped away before Annabeth could retaliate. Annabeth scowled and rubbed the affected area, making Piper grin as she gripped her backpack straps and walked backwards down the hallway.

“I’ll be in the library after school so meet me there once practice is over,” she said.

“You can be a real bitch, McLean.”

Piper winked at her in the most exaggerated fashion possible and said, “Love you too, Annabae.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes and walked in the direction of her next class, feeling a little lighter. If you asked Annabeth, that was perhaps Piper’s most enviable trait: she had the power to literally distract people out of foul moods.

Nevertheless, the rest of the day also seemed to drag on at an unnaturally slow pace, and by the time track practice began, Annabeth felt so restless that she was grateful to have the chance to let out some steam and clear her head, but at the same time she just wanted practice to end as soon as possible so she could go see Percy.

She forced herself to focus on the run anyways. After all, her performances in the last two meets hadn’t been that great. Technically, they were good results, but somehow it felt more like mediocrity, like she was stagnating. Hitting a wall was common for runners who had been training for long enough — at a certain point, progress ceased to be exponential and became more a matter of fighting for inches, or more accurately, for seconds. Progress meant shaving less than seconds off your previous personal bests. At times it felt thankless and frustrating to put all that work into seeing the stopwatch read fractions of a second less than it had before.

But running, at heart, was a psychological sport as much as it was a physical one, and the truly great runners were the ones that had staggering mental fortitude. This wasn’t to say that Annabeth had never felt frustrated, but she had always possessed the belief that with enough work she could continue to improve, that whatever wall she faced could be broken down given enough persistence and intelligence.

As a result, she pushed herself harder at practice that day and felt completely spent by the time she was done with her run. She gave herself about two or three minutes to rest before she jogged back to help watch over the freshman and the sophomores, a troublesome task especially given how cold it was and how tired she was, but she had her duties to fulfill as captain after all.

By the time she reached the school, the sky had begun to rapidly darken as the sun dipped below the horizon. Annabeth was halfway done with her stretches when Coach Davis pulled her aside to talk.

“How are you feeling, Annabeth?” she asked.

Annabeth blinked. “Good?”

She smiled warmly and said, “Good, good. Well, I’ll cut straight to the chase, no pun intended.”

She still paused like she was waiting for her to laugh, but Annabeth had heard Percy wear out all possible permutations of puns of her last name, so nothing phased her anymore.

When she didn’t laugh, her coach coughed surreptitiously and continued. “Starting this year, the state is organizing a new invitational meet. The top fifty runners in the state of each gender are invited to compete, so I was informed today that you’ve been offered an invitation!”

Annabeth’s heart rate quickened — Reyna would definitely be there then. “When is it?” she asked.

“It’s being held in mid-November. I don’t think they’ve completely settled on a date yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I get word from them,” she said. “I know I probably don’t need to ask, but I will anyways: are you interested in competing?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Annabeth said quickly.

Coach Davis grinned and said, “That’s great! I’ll let them know and keep you posted!”

Excitement coursed through her veins even after she was done showering, but as Annabeth walked to the library, she realized that she would not do well at the invitational given her last few performances. Almost immediately, Annabeth recalled Reyna’s invitation at the party to reach out to her if she wanted run together and felt horribly tempted to send her a text. On the one hand, it might be exactly what she needed to help break through her slump, but on the other she also felt like it was weird to ask her biggest competition to basically help train her.

She wrestled those thoughts into the back of her mind once she found Piper in the library, sitting at a table by the window with her homework sprawled all over the desk.

“Ready to go?” Annabeth asked, gripping the straps of her backpack.

Piper yawned and stretched in her chair. “Sure thing. Let me put my shit away first.”

Annabeth waited for Piper to round up all the homework and watched as she crumpled and forcefully shoved everything haphazardly into her backpack, much to Annabeth’s disgust. Piper rolled her eyes and shot Annabeth a look over her shoulder.

“I can practically _feel_ you judging me,” Piper said.

“Oh, believe me, I am,” Annabeth said.

“Asshole,” Piper grumbled. “I’m rushing for _your_ sake, you know.”

“Uh huh,” Annabeth said, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

“Judgy Annabeth is my least favorite Annabeth,” Piper muttered.

“Funny, Judgy Annabeth happens to be my favorite,” Annabeth said lightly.

Piper’s car was similarly disheveled, strewn with clothes and Taco Bell bags, prompting Annabeth to look at Piper with her eyebrow raised, a smirk tugging at her lips. Piper had the decency to look embarrassed as Annabeth moved the junk of the passenger’s seat to give herself room to sit down.

“I’m honestly surprised how Jason puts up with you,” Annabeth said, buckling her seat belt. “I mean, he’s way more of a clean freak than I am.”

“That’s why I make him drive me around everywhere. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Piper said, tapping her temple with a finger.

Annabeth huffed a laugh and said, “Those are some advanced tactics there.”

“Mhmm, truly galaxy brain,” Piper said, starting the car.

After they pulled out of the school parking lot, Piper turned the radio on and flicked through the channels until she found something she liked. Once she was satisfied, she gave Annabeth a sidelong glance, which, from prior experience, was enough to inspire dread.

“Soo, how’re things going?” Piper asked.

Annabeth stifled a groan and said, “Things are fine.”

“I could use some more than ‘fine’,” Piper said, snorting. “Give me something juicy.”

“Juicy,” Annabeth repeated blankly.

Piper nodded and said, “Yeah, juicy. You know, something spicy.”

“Are we talking about food? Because I’m kinda confused right now.”

Piper groaned and knocked her head against the steering wheel. “You can be so difficult sometimes, Chase. I’m asking how things are with Percy.”

“I said they were fine,” Annabeth said defensively.

“Please sir, could I have some more?” Piper said in a remarkably good British accent.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, Oliver Twist. Things are going well. We went on a date a while back. Percy took me to the aquarium. It was nice.”

“Continue,” Piper said, waving her hand for effect.

“That’s about it. Oh, we went to a party last week. It was okay. I got super drunk and couldn’t remember much about what happened,” Annabeth said.

“Christ, Annabeth, you’re so fucking bad at telling stories. I feel the auditory equivalent of getting my teeth pulled at the dentist’s,” Piper complained.

“Rude,” Annabeth said, frowning.

“Someone had to tell you, babe,” Piper said, giving her a significant look. “Have you guys kissed yet?”

“No?”

Piper stole a glance at her quickly before looking back at the road. “Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously,” Annabeth said. “Something wrong with that?”

“Well, no, but I sorta figured all those years of pent up feelings and unresolved sexual tension would’ve exploded or something,” Piper said.

“Years of unresolved sexual tension?” Annabeth asked, trying not to balk.

Piper rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t play dumb, Annabeth. Literally everyone has been waiting for you two to bang and get it over with.”

“Okay, what the fuck are you talking about?” Annabeth asked. “I am genuinely confused.”

Piper frowned and stole another look at Annabeth. “Why are you acting like this is all news to you? Didn’t you ask him out because you finally wanted to stop pretending you were both just friends?” Piper asked.

“Pretending?”

“Annabeth, I’m beginning to think that you’re either trolling me super hard right now or that you seriously don’t understand what it means to be in a romantic relationship,” Piper said.

“Well, I can promise I’m not trolling,” Annabeth said.

Piper’s frown deepened. “Well, can you tell me how things have changed now that you are both in a relationship?”

Annabeth thought about it for a while, but realized that she think of anything. “I don’t really think there have been any changes,” she said slowly.

“Do you want things to change?” Piper prompted.

“I don’t know,” Annabeth said honestly.

Piper sighed and said, “Annabeth, what is it that you want out of this relationship? Like why are you going out with Percy? Because it sounds to me like you guys are still friends pretending to be a couple.”

Annabeth almost choked on her own spit and tried frantically to think of a response to defuse the situation but couldn’t think of anything. Thankfully, that was when they pulled up in front of Percy’s house. Annabeth quickly got out of the car, her backpack in tow, before Piper could continue interrogating her and walked to Percy’s front door and rang the bell. The door didn’t open even after Piper had finished parking and made her way to the front door.

“Do you think he isn’t home?” Annabeth asked.

“No clue,” Piper said. “Let’s ring it again.”

There was still no response after they rang the doorbell the second time, prompting Piper to send Percy another text. They were almost about to leave when the door opened and Percy greeted them, looking like death. His hair was even more disheveled than usual and his nose was bright red. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt with the words Westwood Swim Team embossed on the front and pajama bottoms that had little penguins on them.

When he spoke, his voice was so hoarse that it was barely louder than a whisper. “Annabeth? Piper? What’re you doing here?”

“You weren’t at school or answering our texts, so we were worried and wanted to check up on you,” Annabeth said.

“I just woke up,” Percy said, rubbing his eyes. “I’m super sick. I think I have the flu.”

“Is your mom or Paul home?” Piper asked.

Percy shook his head. “Mom’s on her book tour, and Paul and Stella are at his parent’s place for the weekend.”

“So you’re home alone with the flu?” Annabeth said, frowning. “I’m sleeping over this weekend. There’s no way I’m leaving you to deal with this all alone.”

“Don’t, Annabeth. I don’t want to get you sick,” Percy protested.

“She’s right, Perce,” Piper said. “You need someone to look after you. I’d volunteer to stay too, but I can’t afford to be sick since auditions for the school play are on Monday.”

Annabeth nodded and said, “Don’t worry about it. I got this.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it,” Piper said.

“Don’t I have a say in any of this?” Percy asked feebly.

“No,” Annabeth and Piper said in unison.

Percy sighed and threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine,” he grumbled. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you if I get you sick.”

“Let me know if you guys need anything!” Piper said.

“Will do,” Annabeth said. “See you on Monday.”

After Piper said her last goodbyes and went back to her car, Annabeth stepped inside Percy’s house and closed the door behind them. She dropped her backpack by the door and took her Toms off. It had been a while since she’d been her. The scent of cinnamon and cookies lingered in the air and warmed her from the inside out. It was as though a weight had been moved off her shoulders, and she felt truly relaxed.

Annabeth turned to Percy and asked, “Have you had anything to eat?”

When he shook his head, she said, “Do you want me to make you anything?”

“You don’t have to make anything,” Percy protested.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “I’m making you something. You need to eat. Now are you going to tell me what you want or should I surprise you.”

Percy sighed and said, “Well, I guess I could go for some soup.”

“Chicken noodle?”

“That would be nice,” Percy said hesitantly.

“Do you have stuff in the fridge?” she asked.

Percy shrugged and said, “I’m not sure honestly. There should be some stuff, I think.”

Annabeth nodded and said, “Alright, but you should be lying down and getting some rest.”

“Yeah, I’m feeling super tired even though I just woke up, and my throat is killing me so I’m gonna try not to talk too much. I’ll be in the living room if you need anything,” he said.

Annabeth watched as Percy gingerly made his way to the living room and collapsed face first on the sofa before she made her way to the kitchen. She dug around in the pantry and the refrigerator and managed to find enough ingredients to make some soup, but that was only the easy part. Anyone that knew her in any capacity knew that Annabeth Chase was not someone to be trusted in a kitchen. Somehow things always seemed to go wrong anytime she so much as stepped into one. The only exceptions were when she baked with Percy, under his careful supervision. Cooking by herself was intimidating to say the least.

She looked up a recipe on her phone and started to prep the ingredients. She followed the instructions as best as she could, but it still took her thirty minutes longer to finish than the recipe said it would take. The final product certainly _resembled_ chicken noodle soup and even smelled like it, but Annabeth still felt an enormous amount of trepidation as she dipped a spoon to get a taste.

Maybe it was providence, but the soup did not actually taste that bad. It was a bit too salty, but in comparison to her previous cooking endeavors the fact that it was even edible deserved to be celebrated. Of course, she was going to be judged by someone who ate Sally Jackson’s cooking daily, so Annabeth knew better than to let her hopes soar too high.

Since it was nearly dinner time, so she poured herself a bowl in addition to the bowl she’d made for Percy and made her way to the living room. Percy was lying on the sofa watching old Pokemon episodes on the TV with the volume turned down, swaddled in a blanket that he must have brought from his room upstairs. When he heard her approaching he forced himself to sit up and take the bowl she handed him. Annabeth watched nervously as he blew on his first spoonful and took a sip.

“Hey, this is pretty good,” Percy said, sounding surprised.

“Really?” Annabeth asked. “It’s not too salty or anything right?”

“Well, my taste buds are pretty messed up since I’m super sick, so I can’t really tell,” he admitted.

“That’s a relief,” Annabeth said. “I’m glad I didn’t fuck it up too bad.”

Percy laughed before devolving into a coughing fit. “I’m impressed,” he said hoarsely.

“Okay, less talking, more eating,” Annabeth said, turning to her own bowl.

Once they were done, they sat in silence for a while and watched more Pokemon. Percy disappeared now and then to refill on Kleenex or to have a spoonful of NyQuil. Annabeth couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for him. He looked positively destroyed. He was so congested he found it hard to breathe and had to blow his nose almost every minute.

When another of Percy’s coughing fits interrupted the show, Annabeth couldn’t help turning to him and asking, “How’d you manage to get sick? You like never get sick.”

“I think it was because of the party we went to after the meet last weekend. Maybe my hair wasn’t dry enough or something and being exposed to the cold air made it easier for me to get a cold,” he said.

Annabeth frowned and said, “We weren’t even outside for very long though.”

“Well, I walked home after dropping you off after the party, so that’s probably why. I haven’t felt good all week, honestly,” Percy said.

“Is that why you were acting so weird this week then? Because you were sick?” she said.

Percy sighed and said, “No, that was just me being stupid about something.”

“Well, can you tell me what you were being stupid about because I don’t remember anything?”

There was a pause before Percy said, “How far can you remember?”

“Last thing I remember was playing ping-pong with Reyna, the girl who won state last year that I told you about, and swapping numbers with her,” Annabeth said.

“She has your number?” Percy asked, frowning.

“Well, yeah, she asked me to so we could run together sometime,” she said.

“You want to run with her? I thought she was like your biggest competition or something,” Percy said, raising an eyebrow.

“I thought that it would be a good chance to learn how she trains and stuff. You wouldn’t get it since you’re the best swimmer in the state, but people like me have to work as hard as we can if we want to beat super talented people,” Annabeth said.

“Are you seriously saying that I wouldn’t get working hard at a sport?” Percy said coldly.

Annabeth was not entirely sure where this conversation was going or how it had derailed itself so much to begin with. She sighed and said, “That’s not what I meant. Running with someone who is better than me is the best way to improve, and she was offering so it would have been stupid not to accept.”

When Percy was silent, Annabeth said, “Honestly, I don’t know why she wants to run with me either. I mean, I don’t see how this benefits her in any way.”

“Oh, it benefits her alright,” Percy muttered.

“Okay, what’s going on with you? Why are you interrogating me so much about her instead of answering my initial question?” Annabeth asked.

“Nothing’s going on, I was just curious.”

“I know you’re lying,” Annabeth said, trying not to feel frustrated. “Can you please tell me what’s going on? It feels like you’re hiding something. Not just now but since we started this whole practice dating thing.”

Percy opened his mouth to answer before falling into another coughing fit. “Can we talk about this once I’m feeling better? My throat is killing me,” he said.

Annabeth did her best to quell her growing frustration and nodded. It couldn’t be helped if Percy was sick, but her previous suspicions that something was wrong had only been reinforced by how evasive he had been. For some reason, she found herself thinking about the conversation she’d had with Piper in the car and how she’d felt similarly agitated then too.

She lost track of time as she thought about what exactly was pissing her off so much, but she finally found the answer hours later — in light of how Piper had said things about their friendship that Annabeth had never noticed and how Percy was hiding things from her, the fact was that she really didn’t know Percy as well as she thought she did.

Annabeth couldn’t help feeling unsettled and oddly betrayed. She’d known Percy since grade school, and in that time she had come to think of herself as something of an expert on him. Better than anyone else, she could read how he felt via his body language or his state of mind from the look in his eyes. It was troubling to her that there were dimensions to him that she knew practically nothing about. His words from their date at the aquarium echoed in her mind, forming a knot of unease in her stomach: _There’s lots of things that you don’t know about me._

It felt like the entire world was in on some big secret that Annabeth knew nothing about and that everyone was doing their utmost to keep her from discovering that secret. She wished someone would just talk to her plainly instead of veiling everything they said or did with a thousand layers of subtext and metaphors.

That was the heart of the issue: no one seemed to trust her enough to tell her what was going on. She thought that trust was a given in her friendship with Percy, but maybe she was wrong. After all, why would he hide things from her if he actually trusted her?

The sense of betrayal blossomed in the pit of her stomach, bringing a vile taste to her mouth. She looked over at Percy, sleeping and drooling obliviously on the sofa, and felt cheated for the first time in their friendship. The second she had that thought, however, a wave of nausea and guilt washed over her. Thinking about Percy like that just felt wrong. She knew deep down in her soul that if there was anyone that she could trust with her life, it was Percy. Without question. To doubt him felt like its own form of betrayal somehow.

When she thought about it like that, the only other explanation for her present circumstances was that it was something that Percy couldn’t talk about for some reason, not because of any fault on her part.

Maybe she just had to trust him and wait for him to come to her, to explain what was going on when he felt like he could. After all, he had never pressured her to share things that were bothering her — he had only ever given her space. At the very least, shouldn’t she extend him that same courtesy? That sort of thing had always been so much harder for her than it had for him. Being conscientious of others wasn’t exactly one of Annabeth’s strong suits, after all. Often her drive to know overpowered her capacity for empathy.

Her thoughts continued to race throughout the night, but at some point, she must have fallen asleep because Annabeth woke up the following morning curled up on the other end of the sofa, leaning away so as not to sit on top of Percy’s feet. Once she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she stood up with a yawn and stretched before she noticed that Percy wasn’t there.

She followed the sound of Percy humming and bustling about the kitchen and leaned against the wall, watching him as he poured some batter onto a frying pan. Whatever he was making smelled good, good enough to make her stomach rumble. The timer on the oven showed that it was nearly noon, which sort of explained why she was so hungry. When he noticed her, he smiled and waved her over.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” he said.

Annabeth stifled a yawn and said, “Didn’t appreciate the unnecessary commentary, but good morning to you too. You sound a lot better.”

“Yeah, my throat is way less sore. Must’ve been your magic soup,” Percy said, grinning.

“Mhm, sure,” Annabeth said, sitting on a barstool at the kitchen island. “Please tell me you’re making pancakes?”

“ _Blue_ pancakes,” he corrected. “How many do you want?”

Annabeth had to resist the urge to moan. “Can I say fifty? Because I could totally eat fifty.”

“I’ll make three just to be safe,” Percy said, laughing. “I’m surprised you slept in so late.”

“I worked really hard at practice yesterday, so I was pretty exhausted,” Annabeth said. “Speaking of practice, I totally meant to tell you this yesterday, but Coach said that I’ve been chosen to participate in an invitational meet. It’s supposed to be like the top fifty runners in the state, so that’s cool.”

Percy was beaming as he said, “That’s great, Annabeth! I’m super happy for you!”

Annabeth managed a small smile. “Thanks. I’ve been in a bit of a rut these last few meets though, so I need to step up my game for the invitational.”

“When is it?” he asked.

“Some time in November, but Coach said the details haven’t been confirmed yet,” Annabeth said.

“That’s plenty of time to break out of your rut,” Percy said.

Annabeth sighed and said, “I hope so.”

Percy turned off the stove and transferred the last pancake to a plate on the counter before he turned to Annabeth with a plate of three blue pancakes stacked on top of one another. He slid the plate to her across the island before taking off the blue and white checkered apron he was wearing and looking at her.

“Well, I know you can do it,” he said.

Annabeth smiled softly and said, “Thanks, it means a lot coming from someone that actually gets it.”

“No problem,” Percy said, smiling. “Oh, right, maple syrup.”

He went to the fridge and dug around until he found a bottle hidden in the back of his fridge. He took a seat beside her at the island on another barstool after getting them some knives and forks.Annabeth helped herself to some maple syrup, drizzling not too much atop her pancakes. It had been so long since she’d had the famous Jackson Family pancakes that her hands shook a little around her knife and fork.

She took her first bite and was unable to resist a moan this time, making Percy laugh. “Don’t judge. It’s been ages since I’ve had these,” Annabeth protested, covering her mouth.

“I’m not judging,” Percy said, smirking. “Just glad you like them.”

Annabeth watched as Percy drowned his pancakes in enough maple syrup to make a dentist cry, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth, and felt a sudden rush of fondness wash over her. Despite everything going on, one of the few remaining universal constants was Percy’s penchant for drenching pancakes in maple syrup. It was a little dumb how much that comforted her.

They spent the rest of the day watching Disney and Pixar movies, lying down on the sofa at opposite ends. They had taken some more blankets from upstairs to bury themselves under. At some point, their legs grew entangled with one another, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It felt good to just be around one another, to just unreservedly be Percy and Annabeth without any expectations from the outside world. It felt like it had been a long time since she had felt that way.

Percy turned to her midway through Wall-E and cleared his throat surreptitiously. “I forgot to say so yesterday, but thanks for staying over and taking care of me and stuff. I really appreciate it,” he said.

“It’s not a big deal,” Annabeth said. “I know you would’ve done the same for me.”

“Still, I’m very grateful,” he said, meeting her eyes.

There was something uncharacteristically serious in his eyes that froze her. “You’re welcome,” she said, blinking.

The moment passed once Annabeth noticed her phone was vibrating on the coffee table. She picked it up but put it away instantly when she saw the caller ID read “Helen”. She wasn’t about to ruin what was a nice day by talking to her step-mother. Annabeth assumed that that would have been the end of it — it wasn’t the first time she’d ignored her step-mother’s phone calls — but Helen called six more times. Even Percy gave her a questioning look when her phone kept ringing.

Then Annabeth received a text that read: PICK UP YOUR PHONE NOW.

She sighed and decided that it would be best to comply instead of making the situation worse, so the next time her step-mother called, Annabeth answered.

“Hello?” Annabeth said.

Helen’s voice was downright murderous. “Where are you?”

Annabeth sat up straighter and pressed the phone closer to her ear. “I’m at Percy’s house,” she said carefully.

“Did you not notice that I called you several times?” Helen hissed.

“We were watching a movie, so I didn’t realize,” Annabeth lied.

“Are you aware of what today is?” Helen asked coldly.

“Saturday?” Annabeth answered glibly.

Helen took a sharp intake of breath. “Honestly, I don’t know why I even bother with you. Well, since you don’t seem to be aware, I’ll fill you in. Today was Bobby and Matthew’s birthday. I told you on Monday that we were going to have dinner together to celebrate on Saturday night. We have been waiting for you for more than thirty minutes, but I should’ve known that you wouldn’t have remembered. Your father and I are very disappointed with you,” she said.

Annabeth felt a lump form in her throat, making it impossible for her to respond.

“I know it’s my fault for expecting anything of you, but your behavior is astonishing and frankly unacceptable. We are going to have a stern talk once you come home,” Helen said.

Annabeth yanked her phone away from her ear like it had burned her and hung up. Almost immediately tears began to well in her eyes, but she brushed them away angrily with the back of her hand before they could fall. She heard Percy shift closer to her and wrap his arm around her shoulder, and she melted into his embrace.

“Hey is everything okay?” he asked softly.

“No,” Annabeth said shakily. “Helen just called to give me shit for forgetting about the twins’s birthday dinner tonight.”

“That’s awful. I am so sorry,” Percy said.

Annabeth moved away from him with a shrug and laughed humorlessly. “Yeah, well, that’s just how things are — me being an unwanted fuck-up in her perfect family,” she said bitterly.

“We both know Helen is super messed up. You shouldn’t pay attention to any of the twisted shit she says to you,” Percy said. “It’s not true. Literally none of it is true. I hope you know that.”

When she was silent, Percy sighed and continued. “Annabeth, family is a two-way street. Has Helen ever tried to make you feel like you belonged? She has no right to say anything when she’s never made the effort to make you feel like family. She can’t expect you to do all the work while offering nothing in return.”

“I know that, but sometimes— I don’t know, sometimes I can’t help wondering if she’s right. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be in a family,” Annabeth whispered.

“Well, I know for a fact that she’s wrong because you’re basically a part of the Jackson family anyways, and I promise you that not once have any of us ever thought you weren’t cut out to be in a family. Your step-mom is just a raging bitch,” Percy said.

A pang ran through Annabeth’s heart. “Really?”

“Really,” Percy said, nodding. “Now, I’m gonna give you a hug because you really look like you need one. Is that okay?”

Annabeth nodded and fell into his arms. Maybe it was the fever, but he seemed warmer than normal, like a human sweater. His heartbeat was steady and comforting — Annabeth found herself breathing in rhythm with it and felt herself beginning to relax. It was times like these that she was reminded how goddamn lucky she was that Percy was her best friend. She couldn’t imagine trying to brave through the world without someone like him by her side.

“Is it okay if I stay here tonight? I don’t want to go home,” Annabeth murmured into his chest.

“Of course you can. Honestly, I’m offended that you’re even asking.”

She pulled back so she could look at him properly. “Thank you,” she said.

“There’s no need to thank me,” Percy said, smiling.

“You’re my best friend. I hope you know that,” Annabeth said, her voice thick with emotion.

His eyes were soft as he said, “And you are mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter feels really sloppy (especially the end holy moly) but i am also kind of happy with it? there are probably a few typos and errors here and there that i will fix tomorrow. i just didn't want to make you all wait for an update. i hope everyone enjoys it. thank you all for the comments so far, especially on chapter 4 - they were really kind and encouraging. not to be a slut, but if you enjoyed the longer chapter, it would totally make my day if you commented! 
> 
> this fic has some tropes that i really hate like misunderstandings and love triangles, but i'm hoping to put a different spin on them so that they make sense and aren't as annoying to read, but do let me know if it comes across as annoying. for everyone asking about reyna last chapter, your answers will be provided in the next chapter, so stay tuned!
> 
> psa: for the purposes of the fic, i'm going to make the cross country season a lot longer than normal. where i am from, it usually ended mid-October, so i know it's not realistic to make it stretch all year, but i kind of need to in order to hit all the narrative beats i have planned. also i'm not writing the meets very realistically either, so i apologize for that.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! follow me on tumblr - my username is knuffled!


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